This year’s Lake Placid Summit Classic drew players and teams not only from across the country and Canada, but also from the other parts of the world.

The Crease Monkeys – a team that’s been coming to the Summit Classic since 1996 – has brought several players from Japan to the tournament in recent years.

But this year, team organizer Harry Mazaheri says interest in the tournament was so strong in Japan that he needed to assemble a second team for this year’s tournament. That squad, Team Far East, featured about a dozen players who traveled more than 6,500 miles to be here.

“They’re here for the lacrosse,” said Mazaheri, a 1978 graduate of Washington and Lee University who spent five years working with a Japanese bank and made plenty of connections on the Asian island. “These are a bunch of the best players in Japan.”

In 2002, Mazaheri took a men’s team and a women’s team to Japan, where he used his ties to the Japanese Lacrosse Association to organize a game against the Japanese National Team and scrimmages with about six other teams. Those Crease Monkey squads have included notable Major League Lacrosse players, including Chris Rotelli, Matt Ward and Justin Smith.

“We take them over about every three years, right around the time of the world games,” Mazaheri says. “Then we’ve gone back twice. It’s been great.”

That exposure helped lead to the birth of Team Far East, Mazaheri. The players making up the core of the team all played in Japanese colleges, and several of them competed for Japan last summer in Manchester, England, during the FIL World Lacrosse Championships.

One of those players is 25-year-old attackman Miki Sekine, who registered 10 goals and 2 assists in the world games.

Like many of the guys on the team, Sekine closely follows lacrosse in the United States. He and the other players have learned of the Summit Classic and the experience it provides from players who have competed with the Crease Monkeys here in the past.

Sekine says that after losing to Australia in their last game of the world games, the players decided they wanted to do all they could to improve their skills and to ultimately help raise the level of play in their home country.

“We realized we need to experience more serious games against teams from the United States and Canada,” says Sekine. “We’re also trying to start the first box lacrosse team in Japan.”

The Team Far East players have likely learned a great deal about how to build a lacrosse team, having spent the weekend with NLL veteran and Team USA indoor coach Tom Ryan, who coached the squad.

“Lake Placid is far away for most people,” says Ryan, an All-American attackman at Bowdoin College in the early 1990s. “For them to make the trip all the way from Japan says a lot. It shows how devoted they are.”

In addition to the quality of the competition, Ryan says, the Summit Classic also gave the team an opportunity to learn more about the North American lacrosse culture, which is built upon a tight-knit community.

“It’s about playing lacrosse, but it’s also about making new friends,” Ryan says. “It really adds a lot to the Lake Placid experience to get to know people from another culture. It’s special.”

Motive Pure Showcases a Potent Princeton Reunion

Seamus Grooms, a standout at midfielder Princeton University from 1995 to 1998, jumped on the chance to bring together some of the game’s greatest players, forming a squad that in its first appearance made big waves in the Men’s Masters I Division at the this year’s Lake Placid Summit Classic.

“When the Rusty Red folded, we saw an opportunity to put together another strong team,” says Grooms, a West Genesee grad. “It was the perfect opportunity to come up to the mountains and play lacrosse with a bunch of friends.”

Pulling from the Rusty Red roster and from many of the greatest college programs, the newly assembled Motive Pure/LAXFU team burst onto the scene Friday night with a thrilling 7-6 OT win over the Burnt Orange squad.

Playing alongside each other for the first time in years, the former Princeton attack trio of Jesse Hubbard, Jon Hess and Chris Massey anchored the offense of the impressive lineup. Graduating together in 1998, the three All-Americans led Princeton to an overall record of 43-2 in their final three seasons together, including going 18-0 in the Ivy League and winning three consecutive NCAA Division I titles.

“There’s a healthy contingent of former Princeton players and guys from upstate New York,” said Grooms.

One of many all-star-like teams in the bracket, some of the other notable Motive Pure roster members included Princeton defenders Damien Davis and Ryan Mollett, Princeton middie Jason Osier, former Rutgers goaltender Mike Zoanetti and Notre Dame middie Jimmy Keenan.

Hess and Hubbard helped Motive Pure burst onto the scene in style Friday night, as they connected on the game-winning goal over the Burnt Orange. In overtime, with just a few seconds left in a penalty that occurred in regulation, Hubbard took a pass from Hess and ripped a sidearm shot to the top-right corner to seal the win. The team then battled the Burnt Orange again in the finals, falling 8-6 to the Burnt Orange in another exciting contest.

While Hess was pleased the team performed so well in the tournament, he was just as happy to be around so many players he has become close with through his involvement in the sport.

“This is really about the experience, seeing all of your old friends and being here with your family while you’re playing lacrosse,” says Hess.

Hubbard, who played with the Rusty Red in the past, says he wishes he and his former and current teammates had been competing at the tournament every year, referring to all the Olympic Village has to offer.

“This was like a reunion for many of us,” said Hubbard, who recently launched Motive Pure, a rehydration solution to quickly and efficiently replenish electrolytes for athletes. “There are some really cool things going on in the Master’s divisions. It’s really amazing to see how many great players come here for this.”